Knitting machine for knitting double face jacquard pattern material

ABSTRACT

Plain single Jersey stitches are first formed, in accordance with a predetermined Jacquard pattern, with yarn of a first color with cylinder needles, then with dial needles, the yarn being supplied to respective needles alternately when the needles are in knitting position, selected needles (in accordance with the pattern) of the dial, (or cylinder) being disabled when pattern selected cylinder (or dial) needles are knitting; then the needles of the dial (or cylinder) are caused to knit with yarn of a different color, the previously knitting needles being disabled; the yarns of the first and second colors are interknitted at crossover points by transferring yarn of one color from the needle of one group (i.e., cylinder) to needles of the opposite group (i.e., dial), and vice versa. A pair of similar Jacquard pattern controllers are located, in radial alignment, in such a manner that one controller selects the cylinder needles and the other the dial needles simultaneously, the needles of the dial and cylinder being, in accordance with the pattern, brought to knitting position alternatingly.

United States Patent Nuber et a1.

[54] KNITTING MACHINE FOR KNITTING DOUBLE FACE JACQUARD PATTERN MATERIAL[72] Inventors: Otto Nuber, Tubingen; Richard Norz, Rottenburg, both ofGermany [73] Assignee: Fouquet-Werk, Franz 8t Planck, Rottenburg Neckar,Germany [22]v Filed: Sept; 24, 1968 [21] App1.No.: 762,075

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 26, 1967 Germany ..F 53 595a [52] US. Cl ..66/25, 66/ 197 [51] Int. Cl r ..D04b 9/08, D04b 9/28[58] Field of Search ..66/25, 196, 197,24, 20, 200, 66/22, 50 A [56]References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,087,690 2/1914 Scott et a1...66/197 X 3,079,775 3/ 1963 Schaeder et a1 ..66/50 A 951,033 3/1910Steber .66/197 1,552,483 9/1925 Hinchliff... 66/197 1,737,597 12/1929Lombardi. ..66/25 X 2,079,670 5/1937 Zieve ...66/196 2,153,019 4/1939Holmes et a1. ..66/25 X 2,169,801 8/1939 Jarvis ...66/197 2,213,1498/1940 Rossler ..66/24 2,850,886 9/1958 Shortland ..66/25 8/1966Pfrommer ..66/196 Mar. 7, 1972 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS DoubleKnit Fabric Manual, June 1963, National Knitted Outerwear Association,pp. 28 & 29.

Primary Examiner-Wm. Carter Reynolds Attorney-Stephen H. FrishaufABSTRACT Plain single Jersey stitches are first formed, in accordancewith a predetermined Jacquard pattern, with yarn of a first color withcylinder needles, then with dial needles, the yarn being supplied torespective needles alternately when the needles are in knittingposition, selected needles (in accordance with the pattern) of the dial,(or cylinder) being disabled when pattern selected cylinder (or dial)needles are knitting; then the needles of the dial (or cylinder) arecaused to knit with yarn of a different color, the previously knittingneedles being disabled; the yarns of the first and second colors areinterknitted at crossover points by transferring yam of one color fromthe needle of one group (i.e., cylinder) to needles of the oppositegroup (i.e., dial), and vice versa. A pair of similar Jacquard patterncontrollers are located, in radial alignment, in such a manner that onecontroller selects the cylinder needles and the other the dial needlessimultaneously, the needles of the dial and cylinder being, inaccordance with the pattern, brought to knitting position alternating]y.

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PATENTEDIMR 7 1972 RED 'CYLINDER SHEET 5 BF 5 FIG.9

KNITTING MACHINE FOR KNITTING DOUBLE FACE J ACQUARD PATTERN MATERIAL Thepresent invention relates to a method to manufacture double-sided,patterned tubular Jacquard knitwear with multifeed circular knittingmachines, and particularly with machines having a fine cut; and furtherto apparatus and a pattern arrangement to carry out the method.

It is known to manufacture double-faced patterned flat knit material onflat bed knitting machines, using a patterning arrangement for eachneedle row, by means of Jacquard cards or on eight-lock machines.Various needle or jack selector groups are arranged in accordance with apattern to guide the needles to produce reversible patterned knittedmaterial.

Circular knitting machinery having apparatus to select the dial needleshave been proposed and are described in the literature (see, forexample, British Patents 311,898; 734,406; US. Pat. Nos. 2,697,336;2,814,937; German Patent 668,048; 444,989; and 1,186,972, whichcorresponds to British Patent 874,719). Single-faced patterns on theinner side of the knit material can be made by such machines, byselecting the dial needle in accordance with predetermined patterns.

Circular knitting machines having various types of needles and ofvarious needle length are also known, in order to manufacture verticallystriped material, for example similar to the eight-lock, flat bedknitting machines, such as eight-lock circular knitting machinery. Suchmachines to select the dial needles in the past could only select theneedles of the dial in accordance with a pattern, and took upsubstantial space, so that the amount of feed of the machinery wasreduced, and the repeat height of the pattern was limited. Further, suchknown patterning arrangements were not suitable to manufacturereversible double-sided patterned Jacquard material, since the patternwheels for the dial needles, or the index rings therefor could not beseparately adjusted for synchronism with the cylinder needle selectionarrangement.

It has been found that Jacquard patterns of any selectable pattern couldnot be made on circular knitting machines having different types ofneedles, as are customary in machines making long striped patterns.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method, and anapparatus to carry out the method, to make reversible, that isdouble-sided patterned Jacquard knit material, or eight-lock knitmaterial on circular knitting machines, so that the result will besimilar to the knit material made on flat bed knitting machines, andmore particularly to provide a methodand apparatus for multifeedcircular knitting machines of very fine cut, that is up to the order of18 or 20 cut/in.

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE PRESENT INVENTION Briefly, pattern arrangementsare provided both for the cylinder needle rows and the dial needle rows.The respective needle rows, or groups, in'accordance with the selectedpattern, are brought to knitting position with respect to the needles ofthe oppositely located needle row or group in such a manner that eachneedle group only makes plain single Jersey stitches, the yarn of onecolor alternatingly forming a portion of the knit pattern. Thearrangement provides this sequence: assume selected needles of thecylinder group are knitting with yarn of a first color, e.g., red,forming a first portion of the pattern; the corresponding needles of thedial group do not knit; the red yarn is then switched over to selectedneedles of the dial to form a second portion of the pattern; duringknitting by the selected needles of the dial, the needles of thecylinder group opposite the knitting dial needles are then idle. Themissing loops are knitted at a subsequent (with respect to the rotationof the circular knitting machine) knitting feed, with yarn of adifferent color, e.g., blue. Both sides of the goods are interknitted atthe points of crossover, where the yarn of a first color (red) switchesover from, for example, the dial needles to the cylinder needles and theyarn of the second color (blue) switches over from the cylinder needlesto the dial needles and so on, so that the yarns will complement eachother. At knitted regions where the yarns do not cross, that is wherethere is no crossover, the material will be double faced and tubular.

Patterns having three or more colors can readily be made by layingfloats between the two inner faces of the knit material where it istubular, the additional yarn forming the floats providing additionalknit loops on one or both sides of the final knit material.

The sequence of the feed determines the sequence of the pattern rows, sothat selection of the pattern and adjustment of the pattern arrangementmay be carried out in known manner as customary with any Jacquardmachine.

The apparatus, in accordance with the present invention, provides apattern arrangement for each knitting feed by means of a Jacquardpattern controller which, by and itself, may be known. Jacquard patterndevices are, in accordance with the invention, located to be radiallyaligned, so that one pattern device selects the cylinder needles, whileanother one selected, simultaneously, the dial needles; the needles ofthe cylinder and of the dial are then, in accordance with the pattern,brought to knitting position alternately, so that the needles of thedial or of the cylinder will be knitting.

The cylinder needles may be selected by any known selector mechanism.For a very fine cut, a special selection mechanism is necessary for thedial needle in order to enable such selection with minimum spacerequirement. The selector mechanism engages into the tricks for the dialneedles and, by means of adjustable or switchable pattern carriers,linkage bars are operated which transfer the pattern command to the dialneedles while requiring only little space, the entire arrangement beinglocated in the interior of the dial, where is can be accommodated inspite of the decreasing separation between needle elements due to theradial convergence of the tricks.

The Jacquard control devices for the cylinder, as well as for the dialneedles are aligned in radial direction in such a manner that theselected needles of both the cylinder needles and the dial needlescommence knitting at the same point of the feed. Those needles and theselector jacks which are not selected remain in their starting positionwithin the cams, so that they can be selected at a subsequent feed; theneedles which are knitting, and their associated selector jacks, arebrought back to the selecting, that is starting position automaticallyin advance of reaching the radial position for selection. Thisarrangement, which is also used for the dial needles, saves so muchspace that the number of the knitting positions or knitting feeds, aswell as the number of the pattern selectors at the circumference of themachine can be increased substantially.

Increase of the number of knitting position results in a larger patternheight, and the possibility to make multicolored patterns of substantialpattern height by pattern selectors which are set manually. In order tofurther increase the pattern height, pattern carriers, as known, may beused which, after each revolution of the machine, index in accordancewith the pattern in such a manner that the pattern presents continuity.

Reversible, double-sided patterned Jacquard knit material has a softhand, and is light because it has no accumulation of stitches on oneside of the material, as is the case with singlefaced Jacquard patterns.The production on multifeed systems is high and many varied patterns mayreadily be selected simply and inexpensively. Since the formation of theknit loops occurs alternatingly on one group of needles or the other,heavier as well as very thin yarns may be knitted without faults orerrors.

The drawings illustrate the method to make a double-sided patternedJacquard material in accordance with a predetermined pattern, inschematic form. The pattern arrangement is illustrated only with respectto ,the selection of the dial needles, a pair of different selectionarrangements for the same knitting step being illustrated. in theaccompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a latch needle, and a selector butt, having 13selection positions;

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the cam track and a conventionalselection arrangement for the dial;

. FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the dial illustratingthe selection arrangement for swingably mounted selector jacks for thedial needle, which are located in a cylindrical element, the selectorjacks extending at theirlower end beneath the needle jacks in the needleslots, or tricks, of the dial;

FIG. 3a is a schematic view of a selection arrangement for dial andcylinder needles;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the cam of the dial, in schematic showing, bywhich all needlejacks and needle selector jacks are automaticallyreturned in their rest position from which they can be further selected,

FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic showings of a pattern arrangement made inaccordance with the method of the invention, to produce a two-color steppattern on both sides of the fabric knitted on a 3:6-feed Jacquardcircular knitting machine; and

FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 illustrate schematically loop formations of fabric madein accordance with the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates knitting by one row of needles and FIG. 6 knitting bythe other row of needles. Yarn loops appearing at the crossed positionsare knitted by needles of one row, e.g., the dial, while yarn loopsappearing at the blank positions are knitted by needles of the otherrow, that is, the cylinder. The crossed fields of FIG. 5 illustrate theloops of one color (e.g., red) of the knit pattern on one side, e.g.,the outer side, of the fabric knitted by needles of one row e.g., thedial. At the inner side of the fabric, the yarn of the same color (red)will appear at the position of the blank squares of FIG. 6 knitted byneedles of the other row, the cylinder. A different color (e.g., blue),at the outer side, will be knitted by dial needles and will appear atthe crossed squares of FIG. 6; and the inner side, the different color(blue) is represented by the blank squares of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates the loop arrangement for a two-color patternedfabric; FIG. 8 for a three-color patterned fabric with floats betweenknitted loops, the third color (marked green) being double knit atadjacent needles; and FIG. 9 illustrates the loops for a three-colorpatterned fabric in which yarns of all three colors are floated and thestitch sequence is randomly selected.

Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to the embodiments ofFIGS. 1 and 2: The dial is provided with needles and jacks 21 (FIG. 1).Needle 20 has a butt 16. Likewise, Jack 21 has a butt l5 and a group ofselector butts 1 to 13. An auxiliary butt 14 is provided at the end.Auxiliary butt l4 secures jack 21 against sliding towards the center ofthe machinery by bearing against guide ring 22 on the dial 40 (FIG. 2).Needle 20 is placed into knitting position by means of jack 21. The camtrack 33 on cam 30 serves as a guide for butt 16 of needle 20. Surface31 of the cam 30, and transfer part 32 returns the needle to restposition. Each one of the jacks 21 is supplied with a selector butt insuch a manner that it can be selected, in staggered arrangement, in fromone to 13 positions, in accordance with one to l3 adjacent slots in thedial (FIG. 2).

The machine can be arranged in the usual manner to form symmetricalpatterns, V set ups for random patterns, for diagonal patterns, and mayhave butt arrangements in the needle beds as is well known in connectionwith circular Jacquard knitting machines.

The plan view, from the bottom, of the cam illustrates the cammingtracks associated with the butts on the selector jack. The notationchosen is such that any numbered butt, for example 9, corresponds to aselector track, for example No. 9. A position that is to be selected isgiven the notation A, and a nonselected butt the notation D.

A box containing 12 or 13 sliders is located in the region of theselector butts above the dial, the box containing replaceable selectorjack raising cams, as well as selector jack holding cams, which preventraising. In the particular example shown in FIG. 2, tracks 1, 7, 8, 9and 11 are to be selected, as illustrated at 1A, 7A, 8A, 9A and 11A; theselector jack back holding cams, preventing raising, are illustrated atpositions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, l0, l2 and 13 by elements 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D,10D, 12D and 13D. FIG. 2 illustrates a manual setting, but the selectorjack raising cams (corresponding to position A), or-

back holding cams (position D) could be swiveled under a Jacquardpattern control to assume selectively, as desired, the positions A or D.

The butt 15 of all the jacks is carried by means of cams 24, 25 atposition 23 in its exact butt channel, so long as the butts of the jacks21 are guided by the selector jack back holding cams D. If a selectorjack does not have a butt which matches one of the raising carns, butt15 will remain in the circular track of the dial, thus also keeping theneedles within the circular track and not moving them into knittingposition. If a butt 15 is to be moved into knitting position, a selectorjack raising cam must be placed in a track to engage a projectingselector butt 1 to 13.

Referring again to FIG. 2: selector jack raising cam 9A will engageselector butt 9 on jack 21, to move butt 15 over the point 26 of cammingpart 27. Point 26 of part 27 engages butt 15 as soon as the selectorjack raising cam 9A engages selector butt 9 of the jack. The jack isthen carried by part 27 past cam portion 28 so that the selector jackcan drive the needle 20 to the knitting position. Jack and needle arethen returned by the cam tracks in well-known manner. A nonselectedjack, for example one having a selector butt at position 10 is retainedby the selector jack back holding cam 10D and pulled back slightly intothe machine, until butt 15 is below and behind point 26 of portion 27.The nonoperating jack is then pulled back further by locking part 27,and brought back into position to be selected again if desired, at afurther position at point 29, together with those jacks which have beenselected and returned. To prevent excessive motion towards the interiorof the machine, or drift, auxiliary butt 14 will bear against ring 22 onthe dial. Cam parts 24, 25, acting on butt l5 collect the jacks forfurther operation.

Referring now to FIG. 3 which is a fragmentary cross section of thedial, showing a needle 50 in its trick: selector jacks 53 are located ingrooves in a cylindrical structure behind the dial needle 50, theselector jacks 53 selecting the dial needles 50 in accordance with apredetermined pattern. The arrangement in accordance with presentinvention differs from that of FIGS. 1 and 2 in that an auxiliaryselector jack 51 moves the needle jack 54 by means of a small swingingmovement over bearing axis 52 in order to introduce the needle jack 54and its butt into the dial race track. The lower end 53' of the selectorjack 51 is placed within the trick for the needle 50 and beneath theneedle jack 54, so that positive selection of the needle jack can beobtained even with a very fine cut. In FIG. 3 the needle is shown onlyschematically.

The selector jacks 51 themselves, which pivot in accordance with apredetermined pattern, are formed with the well-known selector butts asschematically indicated at 51', which can be arranged in staggeredlocation in accordance with the selected pattern, and are operated inknown manner by manually settable, or controllable pattern arrangementstwo setting bars of which are seen at 71, 71

Those needle jacks 54 which are lifted enter the cam track, or cam race,so that the needles 50 are brought to knitting position. A means isprovided to retain the nonselected needles, needle jacks, and selectorjacks in nonoperating position. Those needle jacks 54 which have notbeen operated, that is which remain depressed within their tricks do notbring needles 50 into knitting position. The needle jacks 54, remainingin the tricks, retain the not selected needles 50 in nonknittingposition. Return holding cam 55, having an angled extension 54 (FIG. 4),depresses the needle jacks 54 during their return motion to retain themdepressed in the tricks, thereby also causing pivoting of the selectorjacks 53, to their rest position. The end of the jack 54 slides over theangled camming extension 56 during the return, in order to slide thejacks and needles back after having been advanced to a knittingposition.

FIG. 4 is a detail view of the return holding cam 55. Automatic returnpositioning of the needle jacks 54 into their rest or nonknittingposition while the machine is knitting, and small displacement of theselector jacks during jack selection enables arrangement of the patterncontrol for the dial needles in a very small and tight space, thusincreasing the cut and the number of feed positions, so that cuts in theorder of per inch can be obtained.

FIG. 3a shows, in highly schematic form, the dial needle selection ofFIG. 3, reversed right for left, in combination with a cylinder needleselection arrangement, also shown schematically, which is generally wellknown. Selector jacks 57 operate the cylinder needles 150. The number ofselector butts for the cylinder jacks, as well as for the dial selectorjacks 51 is the same. The only difference is the mode of operation andeffect on the needles. The action of the selector cams on the butts issuch that when the dial needles are in knitting operation, the cylinderneedles are out of operation. The radial alignment of the jacks in thecylinder, as well as the dial needle beds is such that they are inradial registration. Such an arrangement of the selector jacks, andtheir butts, makes selection of a doublesided pattern very simple, sincea similar adjustment of the pattern arrangement for both groups ofneedles automatically forms a double-sided pattern, as seen, forexample, in the schematic diagram for the double-sided patterns of FIGS.5 and 6.

To make a three-colored pattern, the needles to form the loops of thethird color are disabled in the knitting feeds of the yarns of the firstand second color. The yarns of the first and second color are laid, inthe region of the remaining needles on any knitting feed and not knittedby the needles of the first and second color, as floats between theoppositely connected rows of loops. Then the third color is knitted. Theyarn of the third color forms floats between the rows of loops in theregion of the first and second colors.

Other arrangements, with different distribution of relative position ofthe colors and floats are of course possible and will be apparent tothose skilled in the art. The various possibilities of forming patternsto make reversible, that is double-faced Jacquard material are similarto those for one-sided patterns. They can be selected separately foreach side of the material. The pattern arrangement in accordance withFIG. 3 illustrates pattern selection of pattern controllers 71, 71' byhand, the pattern controllers being locked into working position bysuitable locking means. Such an arrangement permits setting of thepattern control to make small designs, the pattern height beingdetermined by the number of knitting positions and the pattern width bythe number of selector butts on the selector jacks. To make largerdesigns, the pattern selectors may be operated in known manners, usingpattern carriers which can be indexed or switched. Of course, needlejacks with larger numbers of butts may also be used.

The present invention has been illustrated largely in schematic form,the structure of the entire knitting machine, the operation and themethod of yarn feed being well known and standard in the art; referencemay be had to the patents aforementioned, and for a description ofcomplete machines to various textbooks in the field, and for example,Knitted Outerwear Times, for example Vol. 35, No. 19 (May 5, 1966) orVol. 36, No. 20, (May 8, 1967), in which various knitting terms aredefined and machines described in detail.

We claim:

1. Knitting arrangement in a circular knitting machine having a dial, acylinder, needles located in dial and cylinder needle rows, a pluralityof knitting feeds, arranged around said dial and cylinder, andJacquard-type pattern means controlling operation of the needles of thefeeds in the dial and in the cylinder in accordance with a preselectedJacquard pattern;

said Jacquard-type pattern means comprising a pair of similarJacquard-type pattern controllers at a feed, one each being associatedwith the dial needle row and the other with the cylinder needle ro w,respectively, said attem controllers being located with respect to eachot er in radially aligned position, and located with respect to the dialand cylinder needles for simultaneous selection of respective dial andcylinder needles;

said Jacquard-type pattern controllers altematingly activating toknitting position selected needles first of one of said rows only, andthen of the other of said rows only, to control knitting operation ofthe needles of said rows alternatingly and in accordance with a selectedpattern; including slots formed in the dial;

needle jacks; and

selector jacks,

said needles located in said dial needle row being in said slots, theselector jacks being engageable by the Jacquard-type patterncontrollers, and the selector jacks and needle jacks being guided insaid slots;

each said needle jack being pivotally mounted on an associated needlefor swinging movement, one of said Jacquard-type pattern controllersselectively operating selector jacks to cause swinging movement ofneedle jacks to move associated needles to knitting position.

2. Knitting machine according to claim 1, wherein the selector jackseach have an operating end located in a slot and engaging a needle jack;

' and guide means returning selected and previously knitting needles andneedle jacks and selector jacks to rest position in advance of reachinga further selection position.

1. Knitting arrangement in a circular knitting machine having a dial, acylinder, needles located in dial and cylinder needle rows, a pluralityof knitting feeds, arranged around said dial and cylinder, andJacquard-type pattern means controlling operation of the needles of thefeeds in the dial and in the cylinder in accordance with a preselectedJacquard pattern; said Jacquard-type pattern means comprising a pair ofsimilar Jacquard-type pattern controllers at a feed, one each beingassociated with the dial needle row and the other with the cylinderneedle row, respectively, said pattern controllers being located withrespect to each other in radially aligned position, and located withrespect to the dial and cylinder needles for simultaneous selection ofrespective dial and cylinder needles; said Jacquard-type patterncontrollers alternatingly activating to knitting position selectedneedles first of one of said rows only, and then of the other of saidrows only, to control knitting operation of the needles of said rowsalternatingly and in accordance with a selected pattern; including slotsformed in the dial; needle jacks; and selector jacks, said needleslocated in said dial needle row being in said slots, the selector jacksbeing engageable by the Jacquard-type pattern controllers, and theselector jacks and needle jacks being guided in said slots; each saidneedle jack being pivotally mounted on an associated needle for swingingmovement, one of said Jacquard-type pattern controllers selectivelyoperating selector jacks to cause swinging movement of needle jacks tomove associated needles to knitting position.
 2. Knitting machineaccording to claim 1, wherein the selector jacks each have an operatingend located in a slot and engaging a needle jack; and guide meansreturning selected and previously knitting needles and needle jacks andselector jacks to rest position in advance of reaching a furtherselection position.